Global sustainable development and poverty reduction requires healthier and more
sustainably managed oceans and seas. The fisheries sector alone is the main
source of protein for one billion people as well as a major provider of
livelihoods: it provides some 5-10% of the world's food supply. There is growing
pressure on the marine environment. The decline in marine biodiversity and the
depletion of fish stocks are of increasing concern, as is the use of Flags of
Convenience, especially for fishing vessels, as a means to avoid management
conservation measures. The recent sinking of the "Prestige" has again
demonstrated that tanker safety and pollution prevention have to be further
improved.

1. By acting in accordance with the relevant United Nations Conventions, we
will work towards sustainable fisheries and marine conservation.

Specifically, we commit to:

1.1 The ratification or acceding to and implementation of the United
Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which provides the overall legal
framework for oceans;

1.2 Develop and facilitate the use of diverse approaches and tools,
including the ecosystem approach, for the management of human activities in
order to protect oceans and seas and their resources, drawing on the work
underway in the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and the Food and
Agriculture Organisation (FAO);

1.3 Maintain the productivity and biodiversity of important and vulnerable
marine and coastal areas, including on the high seas;

1.6 The urgent development and implementation of international plans of
action under the FAO, inter alia to eliminate illegal, unreported and
unregulated (IUU) fishing;

1.7 Strengthening regional fisheries organisations, including through
improved data collection and compliance with their measures by their member
States;

1.8 Reaffirmation of the commitments made at Doha, to clarify and
improve disciplines in the context of negotiations under the
Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures that covers fisheries
subsidies, and at Johannesburg to reform subsidies that damage the environment
and are otherwise incompatible with sustainable development;

1.9 Address the lack of effective flag State control of fishing vessels, in
particular those flying Flags of Convenience;

1.10 Build capacity in marine science, information and management, through,
inter alia, promoting the use of environmental impact assessments and
environmental evaluation and reporting techniques, for projects or activities
that are potentially harmful to the coastal and marine environments and their
living and non-living resources;

1.11 Improved co-ordination and co-operation among national agencies and
international organisations, notably the International Maritime Organisation (IMO),
the FAO, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission and the UN Environment
Programme, including through capacity building to improve global assessment and
reporting and strengthen science-based decision making;

1.12 The incorporation of priorities from the 1995 Global Programme of
Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment into national, regional and
international policies and initiatives;

1.13 Establish ecosystem networks of marine protected areas, consistent
with international law and based on scientific information by 2012 in our own
waters and regions, and work with others to achieve the same in theirs;

1.14 For those of us who participate in the 1995 Code of Conduct for
Responsible Fisheries of the FAO, promote responsible fisheries as embodied in
this code.

2. We
have agreed to take all necessary and appropriate steps to strengthen
international maritime safety.

We will support IMO efforts, and will take the lead within the IMO in order to:

2.1 Work towards further accelerating the phasing out of single hulled
tankers;

2.2 Address through appropriate measures the special risks posed by the
carriage of the heaviest grades of oil in single hulled tankers;

2.3 Accelerate the introduction of a code in particular for flag States. As
a first step, introduce a voluntary model audit scheme with the aim of enhancing
the responsibilities of flag States for the effective implementation and control
of IMO instruments and to enhance supervision over recognised organisations
authorised by flag States;

2.4 Establish mandatory pilotage in narrow, restricted and congested waters
in conformity with IMO rules and procedures. Relevant coastal States should also
give consideration to the introduction, in such waters, of pilots' immediate
reporting to the relevant authority of evident defects or deficiencies, and to
other measures;

2.5 Accelerate the adoption of guidelines on places of refuge for vessels
in distress;

2.6 Enhance compensation funds to the benefit of the victims of oil
pollution and review the international compensation regime;

2.7 Support efforts to improve the training of seafarers, including
mandatory minimum qualifications.

We have also agreed to intensive port State control inspections and to carry
them out effectively, and to make publicly available details of any ships
detained; to these ends, as appropriate, to request the relevant regional
bodies, such as the Paris Memorandum and the Tokyo Memorandum, to update as soon
as possible existing procedures and guidelines in this sphere.

We shall consider expanding existing potential for technical cooperation
programmes, within the framework of the IMO Technical Co-operation Committee and
Subcommittee on Flag State Implementation, for assisting countries in their
efforts to increase maritime safety and pollution prevention, including the
effective discharge of flag State obligations and adequate application of port
State control procedures.

We are, in addition to efforts to improve the safety regimes for tankers,
committed to act on the significant environmental threat posed by large cargo
vessels and their bunkers and therefore encourage the adoption of liability
provisions including, where appropriate, through the ratification of relevant
international liability conventions, in particular the 2001 International
Convention on Civil Liability for Bunker Oil Pollution Damage (Bunker
Convention) and the 1996 International Convention on Liability and Compensation
for Damage in Connection with the Carriage of Hazardous and Noxious Substances
by Sea.

We will also support efforts within the International Labour Organisation
to finalise a new consolidated convention on maritime labour standards and will
seriously consider the ratification of this convention when adopted.